Recent Articles

Braves Field

Braves FieldThe Bee Hive

Location	Boston, Massachusetts
Opened	August 18, 1915
Closed	September 21, 1952
Capacity	40,000
Owned By	Boston Braves
Architect:	Osborn Engineering
Dimensions: Left Left-Center Center Right-Center Right	402 ft. (1915), 375 ft. (1921), 404 ft. (1922), 403 ft. ([1926]), 320 ft. (April 21, 1928), 353.5 ft. (July 24, 1928), 340 ft. (1930), 353.67 ft. (1931), 359 ft. (1933), 353.67 ft. (1934), 368 ft. (1936), 350 ft. (1940), 337 ft. (1941), 334 ft. (1942), 340 ft. (1943), 337 ft. (1944) 402.5 ft. (1915), 396 ft. (1916), 402.42 ft. (1921), 404 ft. (1922), 402.5 ft. (1926), 330 ft. (April 21, 1928), 359 ft. (July 24, 1928), 365 ft. (1942), 355 ft. (1943) 440 ft. (1915), 387 ft. (April 21, 1928), 417 ft. (July 24, 1928), 387.17 ft. (1929), 394.5 ft. (1930), 387.25 ft. (1931), 417 ft. (1933), 426 ft. (1936), 407 ft. (1937), 408 ft. (1939), 385 ft. (1940), 401 ft. (1941), 375 ft. (1942), 370 ft. (1943), 390 ft. (1944), 380 ft. (1945), 370 ft. (1946) 402 ft. (1915), 362 ft. (1942), 355 ft. (1943) 402 ft. (1915), 375 ft. (1916), 365 ft. (1921), 364 ft. (1928), 297.75 ft. (1929), 297.92 ft. (1931), 364 ft. (1933), 297 ft. (1936), 376 ft. (1937), 378 ft. (1938), 350 ft. (1940), 340 ft. (April 1943), 320 ft. (July 1943), 340 ft. (April 1944), 320 ft. (May 1944), 340 ft. (April 1946), 320 ft. (May 1946), 318 ft. (1947), 320 ft. (1948), 319 ft. (1948);

Braves Field was a baseball stadium that formerly stood in Boston, Massachusetts. The stadium was home to the Boston Braves from 1915-1952, when the team moved to Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The stadium was also known as The Bee Hive from 1936-1941, during a period which the owners changed the nickname of the team to the Boston Bees (the renaming of the team and stadium never took hold with the public, and were both eventually dropped.)

The owner of the team at the time the stadium was built, James Gaffney, wanted to see the game played in a wide open field conducive to allowing numerous inside-the-park home runs. Thus, the stadium was built in what was, at the time, the outskirts of Boston, in a large plot. The stands were almost entirely in foul territory, leaving little in the outfield to which players could hit a home run into - with the fences over 400 feet away down the lines and nearly 500 feet to dead center, hitting the ball over the outer fences was all but impossible. A stiff breeze coming in from center field across the Charles River further lessened any chances of seeing home runs fly out of the park. The only possible target in the outfield was a small bleacher section, which came to be known as The Jury Box after a sportswriter noticed during one slow mid-week game that there were only twelve individuals sitting in the 2,000-seat stand.

At the advent of the lively ball era, it became clear that the fans were unhappy with Gaffney's vision of how baseball should be played, and inner fences were built, and regularly moved, being moved in and out based on the whims. The ownership of the team even went so far as to shift the entire field in a clockwise direction (towards right field) at one point.

After the Braves moved to Milwaukee in 1952, the stadium was sold to Boston University, which reconfigured the stands, demolishing all but the pavilion grandstand along the right field line, which was used to create a football, soccer and field hockey stadium named Nickerson Field. It still stands, along with part of Gaffney's original outer wall, and the ticket office. The rest of the stadium was demolished and replaced by dormitories.